Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Simpsons
I visited the website for the television show The Simpsons and found it very easy to navigate. There are links to watch episodes, get info of upcoming shows, read character bios, and even sign up for their newsletter. There’s also a message board where you can leave comments about the show.
Now I’ve personally never really liked The Simpsons, but I can understand some of the reasons it has such a large following of viewers. The show has been on for 19 seasons, which is an amazing number for any program but especially for a cartoon. I think one of the main reasons is at the time it was introduced it was very different from anything else on television. Realism was not what the graphic artists were aiming for and that’s evident with the look given to the characters. Take the family for example, all of their skin colors are yellow. All of their hair matches their skin color, except for Marge whose hair is blue and like three feet high. Also they all have an overbite and huge, round bulging eyes. It’s definitely not a normal look for a television family.
The other reason for the show’s popularity is it’s not afraid to tackle any subject. Early television programs were more safe not to offend people with topics they chose. The Simpsons is very well known for including very current and controversial subjects, especially political ones. I do think it’s good to have shows that aren’t afraid to do this because it really makes it so people can’t hide from the real issues going on in everyday life.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Wayfinding Project
Assignment: Project assignment is to design external Wayfinding signage system to greet and navigate new students to the Academic Building.
Mission Statement: To design an outdoor signage system for MVCC that is simple and easy to navigate with, yet also visually appealing. This should be able to help new students find the Academic Building as well as any other building on the MVCC campus.
Strategy: A large four sided map located in the center of the courtyard. Each side would represent the building it’s facing, and each would have it’s own color that coincides with the building. There would also be a small bird’s eye view of the entire campus located in a bottom corner of each side. Also smaller signs located outside each building and by each parking lot to help navigate the campus.
Wayfinding Definition: signs, maps, and other graphic or audible methods used to convey location and directions to travelers; also written way-finding
Etymology: coined in 1960 by architect Kevin Lynch
Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.
Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aid orientation.
Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and sea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes.
Principles for effective wayfinding include:
-Create an identity at each location, different from all others.
-Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.
-Create well-structured paths.
-Create regions of differing visual character.
-Don't give the user too many choices in navigation.
-Use survey views (give navigators a vista or map).
-Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding decisions.
-Use sight lines to show what's ahead.
Mission Statement: To design an outdoor signage system for MVCC that is simple and easy to navigate with, yet also visually appealing. This should be able to help new students find the Academic Building as well as any other building on the MVCC campus.
Strategy: A large four sided map located in the center of the courtyard. Each side would represent the building it’s facing, and each would have it’s own color that coincides with the building. There would also be a small bird’s eye view of the entire campus located in a bottom corner of each side. Also smaller signs located outside each building and by each parking lot to help navigate the campus.
Wayfinding Definition: signs, maps, and other graphic or audible methods used to convey location and directions to travelers; also written way-finding
Etymology: coined in 1960 by architect Kevin Lynch
Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.
Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aid orientation.
Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and sea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes.
Principles for effective wayfinding include:
-Create an identity at each location, different from all others.
-Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.
-Create well-structured paths.
-Create regions of differing visual character.
-Don't give the user too many choices in navigation.
-Use survey views (give navigators a vista or map).
-Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding decisions.
-Use sight lines to show what's ahead.
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